New US soccer thread

[anon_d97v9o3a8b6xr]

Lukaku should not have done the interview. Maybe he is frustrated for some correct reasons with the team, but his form is not good with ankle and covid. The team is having issues with health and form, so who knows at the moment. But that first half today was a thing of beauty.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Lukaku should not have done the interview. Maybe he is frustrated for some correct reasons with the team, but his form is not good with ankle and covid. The team is having issues with health and form, so who knows at the moment. But that first half today was a thing of beauty.

I went to the Everton game a few weeks back and it was disappointing. Everton had their own personnel issues so they sat behind the ball the whole game, and the chelsea fans sat on their hands. Today’s game was electric. Wish I could have experienced that one instead in person.

 

[zookeeper2000]

I’ve watched Chelsea on and off…and in the games I’ve seen I didn’t think Havertz or Mount were clearly better options than Pulisic.

Pulisic has always been good on the dribble and drawing fouls but his one touch passing - particularly with the correct bend/weight to a teammate making a run has also become world-class.

I’m completely biased as an American but I feel like Tuchel has been screwing him around. He’s not a back at all…and to his credit he’s playing there to help the team but he is a natural forward/attacking mid and should never be defending guys inside the box.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

I’ve watched Chelsea on and off…and in the games I’ve seen I didn’t think Havertz or Mount were clearly better options than Pulisic.

Pulisic has always been good on the dribble and drawing fouls but his one touch passing - particularly with the correct bend/weight to a teammate making a run has also become world-class.

I’m completely biased as an American but I feel like Tuchel has been screwing him around. He’s not a back at all…and to his credit he’s playing there to help the team but he is a natural forward/attacking mid and should never be defending guys inside the box.

You see it how I do too. Case in point. Yesterday Pulisic had a slow start to the match. He failed to score on a 1v1 with the keeper and got blasted on social media for it. Yes great players make plays, but sometimes the other team makes plays too and the GK made a great play. Then he held on to the ball too long on another play, missed a potential teammate and had it stolen from him and it led to a counter attack going the other way. The crowd and Tiago Silva were said to be frustrated with him. But these things happen every game, and even happened yesterday with players like Mount and Havertz. Yet no one says anything. Mount will produce occasionally on the front end of a set piece. And Kai Havertz will occasionally get on the other end of a set piece. But in the run of play, they aren’t as talented as CP and no one at the club puts the other team on the back foot like Pulisic, outside of Lukaku if he ever gets going.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Premier League 2021/22 Non Penalty Goals per 90 Minutes :
Lukaku :0.54
Mount :0.43
Pulisic : 0.39
James ;0.32
Werner :0.26
Havertz:0.19

Put Pulisic on the right side or preferably the left side of the attack, and watch Chelsea produce more goals.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Darryl Dike goes to West Brom, who sits in 4th place in the English Championship. He’s playing for the same manager he played for last year at Barnsley and led them to “almost” promotion to the EPL. So he’s back in the exact same position as last year.


Ricardo Pepi is said to be going on loan to FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga. Augsburg sits right above the relegation zone and need someone who can score goals. This should be a good move for him.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Ricardo Pepi is said to be going on loan to FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga.

It's not a loan, they outright bought him. $20 million plus 10% of any future sale. Most for an MLS homegrown player ever.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Pepi!

 

[Fk_Pitt]

It's not a loan, they outright bought him. $20 million plus 10% of any future sale. Most for an MLS homegrown player ever.

Ok. That explains it. I heard 20 million and was confused.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

It's not a loan, they outright bought him. $20 million plus 10% of any future sale. Most for an MLS homegrown player ever.

$20 million. Wow.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

So some more details have emerged. All I can say is wow.

Pepi-
Augsburg doesn’t have money. They are a small club fighting to stay up. They’ve never spent more than 10 million on a transfer. So why would they spend twice more than they ever have before and set a record on a young 18 year old “project”? And yes Pepi has scored everywhere he’s been, but relative to Bundesliga, he IS a project. Where did this cash come from? There’s speculation that Bayern Munich was involved in this deal and loaned them money with the understanding that they have first crack at him when Augsburg is ready to sell.

Dike- Atlanta SOLD him for 9.5 mil which is half what they were wanting last year. But the difference is they got 20% of any future sale. That’s huge. Now, for his development it might have been nice to go somewhere where he will learn some new tactics, but there are worse things than playing for the Manager he played for last year, whose philosophy was to get the ball forward to Dike and let him bang with defenders for goals.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

So some more details have emerged. All I can say is wow.

Pepi-
Augsburg doesn’t have money. They are a small club fighting to stay up. They’ve never spent more than 10 million on a transfer. So why would they spend twice more than they ever have before and set a record on a young 18 year old “project”? And yes Pepi has scored everywhere he’s been, but relative to Bundesliga, he IS a project. Where did this cash come from? There’s speculation that Bayern Munich was involved in this deal and loaned them money with the understanding that they have first crack at him when Augsburg is ready to sell.

Dike- Atlanta SOLD him for 9.5 mil which is half what they were wanting last year. But the difference is they got 20% of any future sale. That’s huge. Now, for his development it might have been nice to go somewhere where he will learn some new tactics, but there are worse things than playing for the Manager he played for last year, whose philosophy was to get the ball forward to Dike and let him bang with defenders for goals.

Dike is a good player but I don't understand the fascination with him. He is Gyasi Zardes with a slightly higher upside.

 

[anon_d97v9o3a8b6xr]

You see it how I do too. Case in point. Yesterday Pulisic had a slow start to the match. He failed to score on a 1v1 with the keeper and got blasted on social media for it. Yes great players make plays, but sometimes the other team makes plays too and the GK made a great play. Then he held on to the ball too long on another play, missed a potential teammate and had it stolen from him and it led to a counter attack going the other way. The crowd and Tiago Silva were said to be frustrated with him. But these things happen every game, and even happened yesterday with players like Mount and Havertz. Yet no one says anything. Mount will produce occasionally on the front end of a set piece. And Kai Havertz will occasionally get on the other end of a set piece. But in the run of play, they aren’t as talented as CP and no one at the club puts the other team on the back foot like Pulisic, outside of Lukaku if he ever gets going.

Both keepers in that game were very strong. The goals scored were world class.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Both keepers in that game were very strong. The goals scored were world class.

Mendy is Chelsea’s top player. It will be interesting to see how chelsea does with him leaving for africa cup of nations yesterday.

 

[anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a]

Mendy is Chelsea’s top player. It will be interesting to see how chelsea does with him leaving for africa cup of nations yesterday.

Do they still have Kepa?

I just watched the highlights and MoMo Salah didn't disappoint. He's easily my favorite EPL player. So gifted and his touch is just magical. All 4 goals were top notch.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Do they still have Kepa?

I just watched the highlights and MoMo Salah didn't disappoint. He's easily my favorite EPL player. So gifted and his touch is just magical. All 4 goals were top notch.

Yep. Kepa is our guy for the next few weeks. Uh-oh…

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Yeah Salah is on a different planet.

Do they still have Kepa?

I just watched the highlights and MoMo Salah didn't disappoint. He's easily my favorite EPL player. So gifted and his touch is just magical. All 4 goals were top notch.

 

[anon_d97v9o3a8b6xr]

Yeah Salah is on a different planet.

Did you see Mendy’s save on the Salah shot from about 25 or so? Any other goalie and it was going upper 90.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Did you see Mendy’s save on the Salah shot from about 25 or so? Any other goalie and it was going upper 90.

Yep. That’s exactly what I mean. Without Mendy, they lose that game to Liverpool. And they would have lost some others. Brentford comes to mind. He’s been great.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

There’s speculation that Bayern Munich was involved in this deal and loaned them money with the understanding that they have first crack at him when Augsburg is ready to sell.

Apparently Bayern has done this for Augsburg before.

It seems as if this would be a good thing though. That means that Bayern thinks that there is at least a decent chance that Pepi will be good enough to play for them in a few years. And if he ends up being that good, look out.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Apparently Bayern has done this for Augsburg before.

It seems as if this would be a good thing though. That means that Bayern thinks that there is at least a decent chance that Pepi will be good enough to play for them in a few years. And if he ends up being that good, look out.

They also thought Julian Greene was good enough and he turned out to be a mediocre player in 2.Bundesliga. I think Pepi has potential but not Bayern-level.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

They also thought Julian Greene was good enough and he turned out to be a mediocre player in 2.Bundesliga. I think Pepi has potential but not Bayern-level.

Bayern has a quest to find the replacement for Lewandowski. Not that they think Pepi is. But #9’s are hard to find.

as we are seeing with Pulisic. going to a big club may not always be what’s best. That said, I honestly think it has been good for CP because he’s fighting for jobs every single day and that makes him better. Plus the pressure he is having to deal with is unreal. That can only be good for a US captain.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

They also thought Julian Greene was good enough and he turned out to be a mediocre player in 2.Bundesliga. I think Pepi has potential but not Bayern-level.

Speaking of which, what would people in Pittsburgh think if the Red Sox helped the Pirates sign a kid out of the draft with the understanding that the kid will go to Boston after his rookie deal is over? The inequities of soccer are 10X worse than MLB, yet it makes the sport fascinating sometimes.

 

[mike412]

on a side note, Chelsea has lost their two world class outside backs for the season. They’ll be busy this month finding a replacement. There was discussion about Serg Dest coming over to Chelsea from Barcelona but that talk seems to have cooled. Personally I don’t see him as anything more than a reserve at Chelsea so I’d prefer he didn’t come. Maybe @mike412 has some insight from the Barca end?

The word in almost all of the Barcelona sports dailies (and there are 5 of them I think) is that Xavi wants to dump Dest because he doesn’t fit Barca’s system (as Xavi wants to reinstall it) and won’t learn it. They brought Dani Alves back (who I think is almost my age) not so much to play but to mentor Dest, but it hasn’t worked. Xavi has installed a much more vigorous training regime and Dest hasn’t bought into it either; one of Barca’s trademarks has been if you do lose the ball, try to get it back right away, being very aggressive. That has been missing ever since Luis Enrique left and it is one big reason Barca gives up so many quick goals on counters: The player stealing the ball isn’t pressured and has time and space to find someone breaking open in Barca’s end.

Dest simply has not been pressing when he loses the ball. I don’t think he will get much playing time if they can’t sell him. Supposedly when they were negotiating with Man City for Torres, some at Barca wanted them to offer Dest in the deal to reduce the cash payment. They didn’t because Xavi didn’t want to insult Pep, who he knew wouldn’t consider Dest.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

The word in almost all of the Barcelona sports dailies (and there are 5 of them I think) is that Xavi wants to dump Dest because he doesn’t fit Barca’s system (as Xavi wants to reinstall it) and won’t learn it. They brought Dani Alves back (who I think is almost my age) not so much to play but to mentor Dest, but it hasn’t worked. Xavi has installed a much more vigorous training regime and Dest hasn’t bought into it either; one of Barca’s trademarks has been if you do lose the ball, try to get it back right away, being very aggressive. That has been missing ever since Luis Enrique left and it is one big reason Barca gives up so many quick goals on counters: The player stealing the ball isn’t pressured and has time and space to find someone breaking open in Barca’s end.

Dest simply has not been pressing when he loses the ball. I don’t think he will get much playing time if they can’t sell him. Supposedly when they were negotiating with Man City for Torres, some at Barca wanted them to offer Dest in the deal to reduce the cash payment. They didn’t because Xavi didn’t want to insult Pep, who he knew wouldn’t consider Dest.

I just noticed Dest isn’t even in the squad today.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I just noticed Dest isn’t even in the squad today.

Covid I thought

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Covid I thought

Correct

 

[mike412]

Yep. They had 8 or 9 players out with positive Covid tests. They had more B team than A team players. Dani Alves came on as a substitute and played Midfield. It was a clown show. And, they still haven’t been able to register Torres because they can’t offload enough salary.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Yep. They had 8 or 9 players out with positive Covid tests. They had more B team than A team players. Dani Alves came on as a substitute and played Midfield. It was a clown show. And, they still haven’t been able to register Torres because they can’t offload enough salary.

I went to the Everton v Chelsea game on the 16th. Now, I was thrilled the game wasn’t canceled because I had my tickets purchased well in advance and it was my only chance to see Chelsea play. But it really should not have been. Chelsea had like 6 positive cases and has had others since. Currently Tiago Silva and N’golo Kante are positive and a couple others have just returned. Everton for that game was even worse. They had a bunch of academy players in the lineup.

yesterday Liverpools Cup game was canceled due to their outbreak of 3, yes THREE players. Now there has to be other circumstances that I don’t feel like researching, so I’m so just going to go with the position that there’s a double standard in English football.

things are a mess with Covid in Europe right now. Not surprised I got Covid too when I was there. How I got back into this country is a story for another day…but everyone in Europe, particularly England, is getting it. The numbers are staggering. Hopefully this variant will run its course and won’t have anyone left to infect like it did in South Africa. For the record, I think I had delta. It hit me too hard and doesn’t seem to have been mild like the latest strain.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

The word in almost all of the Barcelona sports dailies (and there are 5 of them I think) is that Xavi wants to dump Dest because he doesn’t fit Barca’s system (as Xavi wants to reinstall it) and won’t learn it. They brought Dani Alves back (who I think is almost my age) not so much to play but to mentor Dest, but it hasn’t worked. Xavi has installed a much more vigorous training regime and Dest hasn’t bought into it either; one of Barca’s trademarks has been if you do lose the ball, try to get it back right away, being very aggressive. That has been missing ever since Luis Enrique left and it is one big reason Barca gives up so many quick goals on counters: The player stealing the ball isn’t pressured and has time and space to find someone breaking open in Barca’s end.

Dest simply has not been pressing when he loses the ball. I don’t think he will get much playing time if they can’t sell him. Supposedly when they were negotiating with Man City for Torres, some at Barca wanted them to offer Dest in the deal to reduce the cash payment. They didn’t because Xavi didn’t want to insult Pep, who he knew wouldn’t consider Dest.

Good stuff Mike. Thank you. I guess they’ll insult Tuchel though. Haha. I just saw this. I don’t like it, but maybe it can work if it happens. Chelsea is desperate for backs and wing backs. He doesn’t play wing back at Barca does he? Tuchel’s system, which I hate, could be a better fit.

 

[mike412]

Good stuff Mike. Thank you. I guess they’ll insult Tuchel though. Haha. I just saw this. I don’t like it, but maybe it can work if it happens. Chelsea is desperate for backs and wing backs. He doesn’t play wing back at Barca does he? Tuchel’s system, which I hate, could be a better fit.

View embedded media

He has played both right back and right wing at Barca, which uses a 4-3-3 system.

I honestly thought he played decently at both, but when you have watched Alves at RB and Jordi Alba at LB for years, “decently” doesn’t really cut it. Both had such a great understanding with Messi and assisted on so many of his goals. Without Messi. Dest is trying to setup retreads like Luke De Jong and Martin Braithwaite. His defense, on the other hand, has been less than adequate.

 

[anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a]

Glad to see you didn't get it to hard from the 19er FK. Fulham haven't played a match in about 1 month due to Covid (3 cancelled Championship games). Hoping tomorrow they can get 90 in tomorrow morning's FA Cup tie vs Bristol City. Just getting the lads on the field to get gametime is crucial so they can get back into it and push for #1 or #2 and automatic promotion.

Antonee Robinson is really losing faith amongst us fans. He is like a lil speed train going down the left side. Puts his head down, goes 1 million MPH, sometimes he makes a nice cut, sometimes he makes a lucky cut and sometimes he overruns the ball but most times he give a poor cross.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I went to the Everton v Chelsea game on the 16th. Now, I was thrilled the game wasn’t canceled because I had my tickets purchased well in advance and it was my only chance to see Chelsea play. But it really should not have been. Chelsea had like 6 positive cases and has had others since. Currently Tiago Silva and N’golo Kante are positive and a couple others have just returned. Everton for that game was even worse. They had a bunch of academy players in the lineup.

yesterday Liverpools Cup game was canceled due to their outbreak of 3, yes THREE players. Now there has to be other circumstances that I don’t feel like researching, so I’m so just going to go with the position that there’s a double standard in English football.

things are a mess with Covid in Europe right now. Not surprised I got Covid too when I was there. How I got back into this country is a story for another day…but everyone in Europe, particularly England, is getting it. The numbers are staggering. Hopefully this variant will run its course and won’t have anyone left to infect like it did in South Africa. For the record, I think I had delta. It hit me too hard and doesn’t seem to have been mild like the latest strain.

We went to the Bahamas this summer. Needed a negative test to get back in the country. My wife and kids tested negative. I tested positive. I called the concierge and said this cant be right because I'm vaccinated (not a ton of breakthroughs with Delta) and my family is negative. She said she will contact the testing agency. 30 minutes later, I checked online and it was changed to negative.

While I think its possible they just changed it because its in the best interest of the Bahamas to not be quarantining Americans for 2 weeks, I really dont think I had it because I didn't have any symptoms at all and I got it in December. Felt like the flu for 24 hours but not even a bad flu. I've been way sicker with the flu. Worst I ever was was for the Zion/Jay Z game. Had to stay home and could barely watch it on TV.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

I don’t watch any Serie A, but if this kid played like this all the time…all I have to say is wow.

 

[anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a]

I don’t watch any Serie A, but if this kid played like this all the time…all I have to say is wow.

View embedded media

I love McKennie. Not only is he talented, a bit of raw and bit of refined talent...he's also has a junkyard dawg mentality. Much like Jermaine Jones, a little bit over the edge at times but not going to put up with any crap from the opposition.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

McKennie scores a big goal today.

juventus ended up taking the L though.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I watched the last 30-ish minutes of regular time and all the extra time when I got home from work. Inter scored the winner right at the 120th minute.

At one point in the second half the announcers were kind of marveling at McKennie. At that point Juve was basically playing five in the back and McKennie was playing right back. And then they would get the ball and he would bomb forward and be the guy leading the attack on the other end. And they'd lose possession, and he'd be back at right back again in a back five. He was all over the field for them.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

I watched the last 30-ish minutes of regular time and all the extra time when I got home from work. Inter scored the winner right at the 120th minute.

At one point in the second half the announcers were kind of marveling at McKennie. At that point Juve was basically playing five in the back and McKennie was playing right back. And then they would get the ball and he would bomb forward and be the guy leading the attack on the other end. And they'd lose possession, and he'd be back at right back again in a back five. He was all over the field for them.

What word describes him? Enigma? I mean, last year his Juventus Manager benched him and said he needed to learn how to be a professional. People speculated that he was on his way out at Juventus. And since then, Berhalter benched him for off the field stuff. Did he learn from these incidents? The way you described him and the video above that I posted Sunday shows a player with a winners attitude and not the behavior of someone with questionable character or work ethic.

 

[anon_4dfwm2pijbr0a]

In other news, the MLS continues to be a terrible league. NYCFC is playing their 2nd leg CONCACAF champions league match against some central american club in....

Los Angeles.

Yankee Stadium doesn't meet the minimum requirements for CONCACAF champions league. So the champs who don't have their own stadium, play in a baseball stadium, played in their arch rivals stadium last year are now playing a tourney game clear across the country.

Now Jason Davis said it's mainly because they play one of the LA teams a few days later and this will cut down on travel which I get. Apparently the RedBulls venue isn't available that day.

I don't know, MLS is mediocre, isn't remotely close to approaching a top tier league and still has miles to go until they're on par with Liga MX. Plenty of Euro 2nd divisions that are better than MLS.

The only positives are they do have some decent academies that pump out some solid individual talent and MLS has improved CONCACAF national teams by giving some decent players good pay, good training, good facilities to help improve their national team play.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

In other news, the MLS continues to be a terrible league. NYCFC is playing their 2nd leg CONCACAF champions league match against some central american club in....

Los Angeles.

Yankee Stadium doesn't meet the minimum requirements for CONCACAF champions league. So the champs who don't have their own stadium, play in a baseball stadium, played in their arch rivals stadium last year are now playing a tourney game clear across the country.

Now Jason Davis said it's mainly because they play one of the LA teams a few days later and this will cut down on travel which I get. Apparently the RedBulls venue isn't available that day.

I don't know, MLS is mediocre, isn't remotely close to approaching a top tier league and still has miles to go until they're on par with Liga MX. Plenty of Euro 2nd divisions that are better than MLS.

The only positives are they do have some decent academies that pump out some solid individual talent and MLS has improved CONCACAF national teams by giving some decent players good pay, good training, good facilities to help improve their national team play.

NYCFC is playing home games in 3 stadiums next year. 10 at Yankee Stadium, 6 at Citi Field, 1 at Red Bull Arena.

I can't believe MLS let them in without a stadium deal. Everyone knew how hard it would be to get a stadium built NYC. Man City will pay for the whole thing but zoning rules prohibit it. They even offered to tear down Columbia's football stadium and build a joint NYCFC/Columbia stadium in its place but Columbia said no.